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| Science & Technology |
| EPA Says to Retreat from Rising Oceans |
| 2011-06-28 |
| Somebody's going to make a boatload of money off this. Someday. In the past, municipalities turned to a manual published by the Army Corps of Engineers since 1954 on how to protect shores by holding back the sea. But earlier this month, the EPA published the first manual on how not to hold it back, arguing that costly seawalls and dikes eventually Oceans have been several hundred feet higher in the past. There's no stopping that. The EPA report said governments have three options to deal with sea-level rise: They can stay on the well-worn path of building expensive protection and raising streets and buildings. They can beat an organized retreat from the shore, perhaps by offering financial incentives to people and organizations to move inland. Or they can allow people to do whatever they want for their waterfront properties but tell them in no uncertain terms that they are on their own when the waters rise. While that seems commonsense to me, I can't believe anyone would sit still for not being protected by the Federal Government. That's what it there for, you know! Most people aren't taking the threat of sea-level rise decades from now too seriously, but planners say it is worrisome when you consider what's at stake -- public roads, schools, bridges, tunnels, museums, police stations and housing developments that are built to last well beyond the average 30-year home mortgage. I'm for letting my grandchildren pay for it then, if it's needed. Not spend their money now, only to find out the computer models were not properly calibrated. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #8 Come asteroid or high water or "global slushy" [mini-ice age], the free market + human inovation, etc. will decide. Artic reminds me of Guam Taotamona prophecies + old dreams/visions of Guam + US-World in future time. MADONNA IS FOREVER, D *** NG IT, FOREVER! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-06-28 22:11 |
| #7 Or at least till the current inter-glacial period ends. |
| Posted by: CincinnatusChili 2011-06-28 20:07 |
| #6 tu3031 - well that started way before MMGW. And Tip O'Neill wanted it. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2011-06-28 19:27 |
| #5 They can stay on the well-worn path of building expensive protection and raising streets and buildings. Yeah, right. So explain to me intrepid reporter why they just spent at least 14 billion on the Big Dig, an eight lane underground tunnel about three blocks from the ocean to replace an elevated structure? I'll wait. Consult your agenda handbook. Look under "awkward"... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2011-06-28 19:20 |
| #4 End the continental drift! Hey hey ho ho mother nature's got to go But just in case, maybe we should go melt the arctic ice cap. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2011-06-28 16:05 |
| #3 All your shore front property belongs to us. |
| Posted by: Bubba Shaiting6532 2011-06-28 15:55 |
| #2 sea-level rise is unstoppable. I dunno; Ma Nature did a fair job stopping it a while back. After all how did those Asian pedestrians wander over here (not to mention the beasties) if the water has always been rising? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2011-06-28 15:00 |
| #1 Sea levels have been rising since the last ice age. How about planning for the natural rise and fall of the water and using urban planning to allow the water to do so while maintaining the infrastructure? Work with the land, not bend it to your will. Of course this makes fucking sense and there is little grant (see graft) money in it so the government will never do it. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-06-28 12:13 |